A Day in Dunkirk

FIRST DAY IN FRANCE: The second day of our excellent adventure was centered on Dunkirk, or Dunkerque, as the French spell it. Since it's in their country, I suppose we should go with the French spelling and not the spelling that was used in the recent major motion picture about the city in World War II.

We had a lovely ferry ride across a smooth Strait of Dover, or Dover Strait, or Dover Narrows. Whatever you call it, it's the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and North Sea, separating Great Britain from continental Europe.

We drove our car off the ferry, and had a short drive to the lovely Dunkerque waterfront business district.

We parked in a lot right across from the "Operation Dynamo" or Dunkerque 1940 museum. More on that destination later.

 We explored the grounds near the museum, and quickly spied this new art installation. 

Dunkerque was home to one of the most told stories about the Allied war effort. Back in 1940, Allied soldiers were cut off and surrounded in the city. Many were killed, but miraculously hundreds of thousands escaped, in large part thanks to civilian boats who came to pick them up off the beach.

For the sculpture we were fortunate to visit, according to a sign on site, the artist chose the Hourglass, "a symbol of passing time, as an analogy for the Allied soldiers trapped in the Dunkirk pocket who slowly trickled out to sea as they were evacuated. This work, which commemorates the success of Operation Dynamo, also pays homage to the soldiers killed or reported missing between 26 May and 4 June, 1940. Moreover, the Hourglass symbolizes the possibility of a reversal capable of turning a defeat into a victory." The installation is called Le Sablier. It's by Severine Hubard, and was dedicated on 12 July 2017.

We were also able to see yet another new-ish installation at Dunkirk, this dramatic bridge over a canal near the beachfront.

There were still some construction signs and fences in the area, but we were able to access the bridge and read the dedication wall adjacent to it.

We also spied a lighthouse. Tonight, via Wikipedia, I learned  it "s an automated first order (i.e. 60 km beam or further) port lighthouse, the highest of this type in France. It is sited near Dunkirk. Construction on the lighthouse was completed in 1843."

 

Here's a longer shot looking south. You can barely see the lighthouse in the center left of the frame below.

Looking toward the north, you start to see restaurant row along the beachfront.

Meanwhile, out on the water, a few sailboats bobbed.

The kids dug into the sand and were struck by how powdery fine it was.

 
While walking north along the waterfront, we heard what sounded like a marching band in the distance.  We finally came across them. They were Les Pet'Boontjes, and they happened to be playing a song by the Offspring (an American band whose peak of popularity was in the '90s) at the moment.

Based on signage we saw in the area, we surmised they were playing along a run/walk route that was a fund raiser to fight cancer.

We kept walking and came to a stretch where there were a couple dozen restaurants all in a row. We checked out menus they had posted, and looked on tables of diners, and finally would up at this place.

The kids ordered what I'll call "American fare" (a burger and Annabelle had spaghetti bolognese). I had scrambled eggs. Christian ordered something, not sure what he was getting. As he looked around the restaurant, he was coveting the huge crocks of mussels and the plates of frites (fries) they came with and said he sure hoped he was getting that.

 He was so happy when his order arrived. :)

After lunch, we returned to the Dunkerque in 1940 museum.  

We'd seen the movie "Dunkirk" recently and, honestly, the lovely day on the sunny beach was such a far cry from the Dunkirk portrayed in the movie, where it was dark, cold and under constant bombardment.

Below is a flyer Nazi troops dropped on penned-in Allied soldiers to let them know how dire their circumstance was.

The museum was small - in a former underground bunker.

However, it has a comprehensive collection of artifacts, thoughtfully displayed.

Some of the things that caught my eye were these rifles from the shipwreck of the Norwegian ship Tindejfell or Le Fred  on 28 May 1942.

 This brown leather allied bomber jacket was absolutely lovely. It looked like it was made yesterday.

 The museum had Allied soldiers' supplies on display ...  

  as well as some chilling Nazi soldiers' artifacts.

 Overall, it was a great visit to Dunkirk/Dunkerque, and afterward, we were off on our next adventure - to Belgium and beyond!

CJ has a few words to share about our time in the pretty city.

Dunkirk is a city in northern France best known for being the site of the Dunkirk Evacuation (codenamed "Operation Dynamo"). We visited Dunkirk during our 2017 trip to Europe.

We got to Dunkirk by ferry (detailed in my last writing for MPA), from Dover, England. After a bit of driving, we got into the city, specifically, a long beach and street area. At the time, the street was host to a cancer run, if I remember correctly. The street had a large number of restaurants, many of which served mussels with fries (which is apparently a tradition on the coast of France). At the restaurant we went to, I had a burger with fries.

After the restaurant, I spent some time in the beach by the street. I'f I'm correct, that would mean that my feet were in the English channel during that visit. Afterwards, we went to a museum, featuring World War II (in particular Operation Dynamo) artifacts from both the Allies and the Axis.

Traveling

WINGING AWAY: Overly excited by the amazing castles of Dover, yesterday I forgot to include any mention of our travel over to the United Kingdom.

We flew on Norwegian Airlines for the first time, on a big, beautiful 787 Dreamliner. The plane gets high marks from all of us for its comfortable seats and ample head room and baggage storage.

The Rolls Royce engine had lots of ooph! Upon take off, we marveled at how quickly we were airborne;It seemed almost instantly.

 After a nine-plus hour flight, we landed at London-Gatwick airport, which is southeast of London proper. We made our way through customs quickly, and to the car rental part of the airport. 

We'd reserved an economy Vauxhall sedan to drive around, but ended up getting 'upsold' to a Mercedes. As much driving as we had to do, at the time we thought the bigger car would probably be better. While it was super comfortable for the driver, the back seat was like a cave, and really hard to see out of - not great for touring the scenic countryside. If we had it to do over again, we'd make a different decision. 

Anyway, we were happy to be off the plane and on the road toward Dover. I snapped a quick shot of this cute little tunnel through one of many round hills in the area.

After about an hour and a half's drive time, we were all quite excited to catch our first-ever glimpses of the white cliffs of Dover. Here they are, as seen from the car.

I chronicled the visit to Dover Castle in yesterdays blog post (if you looked at it early, go back, as I added a bunch more photos)!

Our evening in Dover was unremarkable, spent at the Ramada Inn Dover. The place was quiet and the room comfortable, and that was all we really needed.

We did walk to a nearby pub for dinner, The Archer Public House. It was neither quiet nor comfortable. ;) There was some private party going on inside, with loud, bad live reggae-ish music. But they did have an abbreviated bar menu, which we could order from, and eat it sitting out on their smoke filled patio. The kids were happy with their pizza, so overall, it was ok.

DOVER TO DUNKIRK: We slept a few hours and way-too-soon it was time to get up and on the road. We had a sunrise ferry to catch.

We made sure to get to the departure terminal in plenty of time. We had to go through customs, and give the French customs officer a look in our 'boot' (trunk), but it was fast and efficient.

We explored the ferry terminal a bit, by dawn's early light.

 It was super pretty. The white cliffs of Dover almost looked like icebergs.

 As we walked around, we discovered a doggie pen (but no canines inside).

The sunrise colors managed to make even the semi-trucks look lovely.

 Eventually, we were able to get on the ferry!

 As we shoved off, we got even better glimpses of the beauty of Dover.

 As we pulled away, we realized we could see the castle we'd toured the day before.

I couldn't help but imagine what this sight looked like centuries ago to both visitors and would-be vanquishers. 

 Below, the white structure is a more modern day military base. Someone told us it was the "Coast Guard," but I Googled it and it looks like that's the name of a nearby pub.

Following is a short write up from CJ regarding the ferry ride. 

 DFDS Seaways, a Danish ferry and cargo service, is the only ferry service that carries passengers between the British city of Dover, and the French city of Dunkerque. Dover's terminal is Europe's busiest ferry terminal.

At Dover, I witnessed the iconic White Cliffs, a staple of Dover. The White Cliffs of Dover formed over millennia, from the skeletal remains of minute planktonic green algae that lived floating in the upper levels of the ocean (source).

While the ferry was leaving Dover, I recorded a video of the ferry. On the way to Dunkerque, there were very pretty views of the English Channel. At one point, while on the inside of the ferry, I also played a Mario Kart: Arcade GP machine that was present.

Here's the video he captured: https://youtu.be/oJCnZyeDC5I

It's funny, before we left on the trip, Christian and I looked for arcades we could visit while over there, and found none that would work. It was a nice surprise that there was a mini arcade on the ferry!